by Larry Eder
The 2025 Tokyo World Outdoro Athletics Champs are being held from September 13-21. Here are my deep thoughts on each day and nights finals:
- The 35k race walks were held with a 7 AM start. It should have been 6 AM, as the Saturday start was humid and hot. Evan Dunfee, the Canadian who won the Men’s 35k, said it was the toughest race of his life and the last 2k was the most miserable. Dunfee tore a leg muscle in the race. Maria Perez, Spain won the women’s race, and while she did not look like she was suffering, all of the walkers suffered.
- The Men’s shot put was a tremendously complicated event. On one hand, you had two time winner Ryan Crouser with a sore elbow that had kept him from throwing in competition since Paris 2024. On the other hand you had Leonardo Fabbri, Italy, Tom Walsh, New Zealand, Uziel Munox, Mexico, all lurking. Crouser threw 21.99m, and throwers smelt blood. Uziel Munoz wound up a big 21.97m, and put himself into second, with Leonardo Fabbri, with 21.94m, and Tom Walsh, who has ten shot medals, in 21.94m. Crouser noticed that he needed to get over 22 meters to win, so his 22.34m in fifth round did it. No more throwing for Crouser in 2025, he has had one compeititon: Tokyo!
- The women’s 10,000m was swift and tactical. In truth, no one made real moves until about 400 meters to go. At 200 meters, Beatrice Chebet, KEN, who has not peer, and Nadia Battocletti, ITA, who took silver in Paris at 10,000m, took silver in Tokyo behind Chebet. Gudaf Tsegay, who has many, many medals, added another, this time, bronze in the 10,000m. Winning time was 30:37.61!
- The Mixed Relay grows on you. The US team was deadly and they showed it. Bryce Deadmon, Lynna Irby-Jackson, Jenosh McKiver and Alexis Holmes won by 1.1 seconds. The Netherlands, with Femke Bol anchoring, took the silver, running a much more controlled race that in Budapest. Belgium took bronze in the Mixed 4x400m relay!
